Friday, March 15, 2013

TSA Week in Review: Smoke Grenade, Flare Gun & More

Flare Gun (HOU)

Flare
Gun – A
passenger at Houston Hobby (HOU)had an unusual item in his carry-on
bag: A flare gun and six loose flares!

21
Firearms Discovered This Week – of the 21 firearms, 20 were loaded
and seven had rounds chambered. Here are pictures of some of the firearms. See
a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

Loaded Gun (FLL)

Inert Ordnance and Grenades etc. - We continue to find inert hand
grenades and other weaponry on weekly basis. Please keep in mind that if an
item looks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real
or not. When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they
can cause significant delays in checkpoint screening. I know they are cool
novelty items, but you cannot bring them on a plane. Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.

Live Smoke Grenade (IAD)

A
live smoke grenade was discovered under the lining of a carry-on bag at Washington
Dulles (IAD).

Three
inert/replica/novelty grenades were discovered this week in carry-on bags at
Medford (MFR), El Paso (ELP), and Harrisburg (MDT).

Items in the
Strangest Places –It’s
important to examine your bags prior to traveling to ensure no prohibited items
are inside. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag, you could be cited
and quite possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a few examples
from this week where prohibited items were found in strange places.

A 3-inch belt
buckle knife was discovered at Newark (EWR).

A 3-inch knife was
discovered in a passenger’s belongings at Boise (BOI). The TSA Officer allowed
him to exit the checkpoint so he could give the knife to a non-traveling
friend. When the passenger made his return trip through the checkpoint, the
knife was discovered concealed inside his shoe.

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why
we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our
officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item,
the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent
ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can
face a penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to
please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an
individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law
enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had
these items.

*In order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a
preliminary report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from
what I report in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or
end-of-year numbers TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be
estimates.

You forgot to mention that a US senator tweeted about an "uncomfortable" aggressive TSA patdown in a private screening room. Taxpaying American families should clearly understand the "agressive" patdown procedures their families may be subject to at airports. The TSA is a national disgrace.

A list of the top 10 airports would give people a list of airports to avoid when trying to sneak a gun onto a plane so I dont think TSA will release that.

Relating to the liquid ban, and one of the reasonings for using the people scanners; Here is a BBC article about using liquid bombs which appear to be unopened. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7564184.stm

Why is it taking so long to implement the new policy on taking knives aboard? I think the knives are shown this week would be too large, but I think most states allow three inch blades to be carried in public. If they are the allowed size, what makes them dangerous this week but not on 4/25?

Liquid restrictions should be relaxed. You can test suspicious liquids or just randomly test at the checkpoint and allow people to carry their shampoo and water on board. If these substances are so dangerous, why are they simply thrown away into a garbage can at the checkpoint?

INERT hand grenades, or INERT anything else, are NOT weaponry. They are highly-designed paperweights. Period. Anything else that occurs with them is a product of TSA action, including questioning and/or detention of the 'passenger' associated with the item(s), or delays at checkpoints, and the evacuation of concourses and airports. But in the end, they were, and remain, inert, highly-designed paperweights.

As for the passenger's comment about having an 'atomic bomb' in her bag, what did TSA agents find in her bag? If there was no atomic bomb in that bag, then the TSA agent might have said to the passenger "You are an idiot." And then GET ON WITH IT!. The idiot need NOT explain to 3 or 4 agencies why she said it. Geez. Get a clue. Get a grip! A continuation, ad infinitum, of TSA nonsense.

How would you feel if you were on a plane and the person next to you pulled out one of those highly-designed paperweights? I'm almost positive you'd think it was the real thing and think the worst was about to happen. So how about you actually put some thoughtinto things before you make comments on things you clearly know nothing about.

"If they are the allowed size, what makes them dangerous this week but not on 4/25?"

This is a major policy change and more bad publicity would result if was implemented on short notice with mixed signals from the top. Unfortunately TSA does continually demonstrate they have trouble educating their workforce on current policies as is. We’ve seen many recent posts that screeners haven’t gotten the word that filming is allowed at the checkpoint and has been for years. Also remember some countries require a secondary inspection for flights bound to the US because our rules are different than theirs. It is important that everyone be on the same page. I suspect though that we’ll continue to read stories on here after 4/25 that someone in TSA blue didn’t get the word.

"How would you feel if you were on a plane and the person next to you pulled out one of those highly-designed paperweights? I'm almost positive you'd think it was the real thing and think the worst was about to happen. So how about you actually put some thought into things before you make comments on things you clearly know nothing about."

I doesn't matter what I think about it. The paperweight is no threat to the plane.

" INERT hand grenades, or INERT anything else, are NOT weaponry. They are highly-designed paperweights. Period. Anything else that occurs with them is a product of TSA action, including questioning and/or detention of the 'passenger' associated with the item(s), or delays at checkpoints, and the evacuation of concourses and airports. But in the end, they were, and remain, inert, highly-designed paperweights."So, you're able to tell-just by looking-that a grenade is inert? Are you willing to take that chance?

"I doesn't matter what I think about it. The paperweight is no threat to the plane." I have to disagree. See, while you might have the ability and experience to tell that it's a highly-designed paperweight, the person 2 seats over from you may not. They may see it and think "This idiots gonna blow up the plane" and decide to try and stop it. ( Remember, passenger reaction is why there should be minimal screening done-after all a plane load of people is the first, best line of defense.) Any disturbance in the cabin can become a threat to the plane.